


Now Where Did That Come From?

by paintedbluerose



Series: Whumptober [30]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Episode: s03e21 Sozin's Comet Part 4 Avatar Aang, Gen, If only he wasn’t so stupid sometimes, Iroh knows when Zuko is lying, Iroh loves his boy, Katara & Zuko (Avatar) Friendship, Protective Iroh (Avatar), Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020, Zuko (Avatar) whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27285760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paintedbluerose/pseuds/paintedbluerose
Summary: Iroh and crew arrive back at Fire Nation. Iroh knows Zuko is injured. He wants to protect his boy. His boy is stupid though.Day 30 of Whumptober theme: Now where did that come from?Prompts: wound reveal, ignoring an injury, internal organ injury
Relationships: Aang & Toph Beifong & Katara & Sokka & Suki & Zuko, Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Whumptober [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950010
Comments: 21
Kudos: 212





	Now Where Did That Come From?

**Author's Note:**

> Sort of missing scene when Iroh sees Zuko and realizes Zuko is hurt. Zuko thinks he’s slick and can try to hide his injuries but Iroh like boy, I’ve seen you hurt too many times. I know when you hurt.

Iroh had seen his fair share of injuries over the years. He’d seen plenty on his nephew, who always tried to hide them. He knew when his nephew was injured even if he never said so. Or lied and said he was fine. So when his nephew and Katara came out to greet their friends and him, he knew his boy was injured though he walked like he was not.

As the rest exchanged their excitement of what happened, Iroh snuck in to give Zuko a hug. He could have lost his nephew but here he was. Mostly safe. He did not miss the grimace Zuko had when they broke from the hug.

“Nephew, are you hurt?”

“No, of course not.” The liar didn’t even look at Iroh. 

“That’s a lie Sparky.” Toph snorted. “Your heartbeat is crazy weird. It feels funny.”

“Zuko! I told you to let me know if you were hurting!” Katara slapped Zuko. “You said you were fine!”

“Miss Katara, my poor nephew will always say he’s fine. Even when he’s dying.”

“Uncle!”

“Show me nephew. What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Zuko, do not make me tell your Uncle.” Katara glared at Zuko. Iroh watched the two of them silently glaring at each other until Zuko sighed and started to remove his tunic. If Zuko listened to Katara, maybe she should stay with him. To protect him, of course.

Iroh felt his heart stop when Zuko removed his tunic. A large, star shaped wound splattered across Zuko’s chest. Iroh had seen enough wounds to know what it was from. Lightning. “Zuko. Nephew. What...?”

“Did Azula hit you with lightning too?” Aang asked. 

“Not exactly.” Zuko shrugged.

“Nephew, you have a lightning scar on your chest. You were fighting Azula. None of the guards bend lightning. If Azula didn’t exactly hit you with lightning, tell me what happened.”

“She was going to hit Katara. I ran to prevent that from happening. I didn’t quite make it to fully redirect it. Katara was able to heal me.”

Iroh felt his heart stop again. His boy, his brave boy, risked his life to save a friend. He probably knew he wasn’t going to make it but tried anyway. Iroh was so proud of his boy but at the same time, he was going to have a heart attack and die before the year was up with the way his stupid nephew was. 

“Way to go Sparky!”

“You saved my sister! Thank you!” Sokka hobbled over to hug Zuko.

“Miss Katara, I must thank you.” Iroh bowed to Katara. “You saved my boy. My sweet, stupid boy.” Iroh ignored the protest from Zuko and laughter from Sokka and Toph. “If it wasn’t for you and your healing, he wouldn’t be here right now. I can’t thank you enough.”

“If it wasn’t for your nephew, I wouldn’t be here Uncle. If only he’d let me continue to heal him.”

“Oh don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to make sure his old Uncle is not worried about him. He wouldn’t want his Uncle to die of a heart attack, now would he?”

“I... Uncle... I...” Zuko sputtered. 

Iroh wrapped his arms around Zuko, careful not to squeeze too tight. “It’s okay nephew. You’re going to let Miss Katara take care of you, won’t you? You won’t let this poor old man worry, would you?”

“No Uncle.” Zuko replied.

“That’s good.” He rubbed Zuko’s head a few times before pinching a couple nerves. He felt Zuko go limp in his arms and then handed him to Sokka to carry. “Would you be so kind as to carry him to his room?”

“What did you do to him?”

“I hit a few nerves to knock him out. Now Miss Katara can heal him without any problems.”

“Uncle, you are horrible. I like it!” Toph smiled.

“I know my nephew. If I don’t take care of him, he won’t take care of himself.”

“That sounds like he’s done this often.”

“You have no idea.” He lead the group down the hall to Zuko’s room. “I have so many stories of the three years at sea. Would you like to hear them?”

“As long as they’re good and embarrassing for Sparky.”

“That’s the only kind I know.” 

“Zuko is going to kill us.” Sokka sighed. 

“Haven’t you heard of blackmail?” Iroh chuckled and started on a story if his sweet boy.


End file.
